The second-to-last ranking was a slight improvement from both the 2012 and 2011 CNBC list, in which the Ocean State ranked dead last. This year Rhode Island outranked Hawaii.

The news source scored all 50 states on 51 measures of competitiveness and separated those metrics into 10 broad categories – cost of doing business, economy, infrastructure and transportation, workforce, quality of life, technology and innovation, business friendliness, education, cost of living, and access to capital.

The categories were weighted based on how frequently they were cited in state economic development marketing materials. “That way, our study ranks the states based on the criteria they use to sell themselves,” said the CNBC report.

Out of a possible 2,500 points, Rhode Island earned 983. Comparatively, South Dakota, which landed the top spot in the report, earned 1,639 points.

Calling the Ocean State a “a perennial loser” in the study, the CNBC report ranked Rhode Island near the bottom in economy (No. 40), infrastructure and transportation (No. 47) and business friendliness (No. 46).

In fact, Rhode Island ranked in the bottom 10 in every category except cost of doing business (No. 32), quality of life (No. 20) and access to capital (No. 23).

Rhode Island strong quality of life ranking was its saving grace on this year’s list, according to CNBC, which called the state’s overall performance “dismal.”

Neighboring Massachusetts earned the No. 16 spot.

On Tuesday, Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee submitted an article to CNBC citing the efforts the state legislature, the R.I. Economic Development Corporation and the Governor's Workforce Board, among others, are doing to help better the state's business standing.

The fact that you would even use the word "improvement" (Paragraph 2) shows just how blind we have all become regarding the state of the state. 49, 50, whatever is not an improvement. It is horrid and unacceptable.

RI is currently at the bottom and will stay there until we all, collectively and with the voice of all out rebellion, remove every executive and legislator on Smith Hill and replace them with new faces and voices. People who actually love RI and not just the sound of their own voices in the "chamber".

Might as well disband the RIEDC. Every large business in the USA will look at this report before relocating to a new state, and any states in the bottom 10 ranking are not even in the game. Get RI into the top half of the list (with tax reform and less red tape) and then re-constitute the RIEDC when they have some prayer to attract major employers. Until then, they are wasting time and money.

Business-lobby rankings such as this one tend to be rigged. High-ranking states such as South Dakota have some of the nation's worst schools, low wages, poor options for the retired elderly population, and growing environmental problems due to lax regulation. They may seem prosperous now, but that kind of success is not sustainable.

But the Chambers of Commerce that rig such studies aren't concerned about the long term; their objective is a quarterly profit now, not in 15 years.

Get the most up-to-date data on the Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts business community from the PBN List Center. Download and purchase PBN Lists as well as the complete Book of Lists in Excel format.